President Donald Trump’s injection of the Abraham Accords into talks with Iran underscores how the Islamic Republic is getting the better of the US at the negotiating table, and Trump is trying to distract from it, current and former US and Arab officials told Middle East Eye.
“Trump knows he’s getting a deal that undermines every war aim he espoused after 28 February. So, he’s trying to create a bigger deal,” Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator, told Middle East Eye.
“This is a typical Trump ploy,” added Miller, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The deal under discussion would extend the shaky ceasefire in place now for 60 days. In exchange for obtaining a sanctions waiver on oil sales, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where the US also has a competing naval blockade. The deal does not address Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, which The New York Times has reported is at 70 percent pre-war levels.
Trump provided a mixed rationale for his decision to launch a war on Iran in February, at times saying it was to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He also said that the US aimed to destroy Iran’s conventional military capabilities, and at other times, he also suggested regime change was the ultimate goal.
